If Sibelius's Third Symphony was a surprise to his listeners, the Fourth was a shock. Continuing to strip away until only bare bones of mood and expression are left, this bafflingly austere symphony retreats into “the innermost recesses of the soul”. The initial inspiration for the work was a trip Sibelius made with his brotherin- law Järnefelt to Koli mountain in north-eastern Finland, and though this is absolutely not a descriptive piece in the way that Strauss's Alpine Symphony is, but is completely abstract, some of the bleak moods evoked in the symphony owe their origin to the imposing, even humbling panoramas there revealed. In some respects its soundworld may be compared to Mahler's Ninth composed around the same time, but it also approaches the arid style of Shostakovich. Even the apparent cheerfulness of the pastoral oboe at the beginning of the scherzo turns out to be deceptive. At the premiere, given by Sibelius in Helsinki in April 1911, after the final, sombre chords there was a puzzled silence. Now, in the context of the succeeding Fifth, we can (to an extent) understand that this was a psychological journey Sibelius had to undergo, to come through, for his symphonic development to reach the other side; but taken on its own this elusive, uncompromising work remains hardly less difficult for concert audiences than it was over a hundred years ago.

sources

A  Autograph score (1910/11), in the National Library of Finland, Helsinki

E,P  First edition of score and parts, published by Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig in 1912

Ub  Urtext edition, edited by Tuija Wicklund, published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 2020

There are three different printings of the score: original copies of E1 used to be rare, but unfortunately it is this printing that was reprinted by Dover, hence now on IMSLP. The score in general circulation was always E2. However, more recently (miniature score 1991, full score 1998) a reprint E3 was issued in which a few markings have been added, some printed, some by hand. Two of these derive from a letter (c.1940) from Sibelius to an enquiring conductor; the others probably derive from Sibelius's son-in-law Jussi Jalas.